A STAGGERING 24,000 Scots families are living in extreme poverty, a report claims.

A combination of factors including no qualifications, ­overcrowding, ill health and unemployment contribute to the grim statistic.

Think tank Demos found Glasgow is the worst affected with more than one in 10 families (11 per cent) facing severe disadvantage – almost three times the national average of four per cent. Fife was also above the Scots average with five per cent.

Paul Moore, chief ­executive of Scottish charity Quarriers, said: “The research paints a bleak picture of what life is like for ­thousands of families across Scotland.”

Researchers analysed 28,000 ­Scots familes, looking at seven disadvantages. Those facing four or more were considered “severely disadvantaged”.

The report, called A Wider Lens also found:

?Unmarried households with kids are six times more likely to be severely disadvantaged than married ones.

?15 per cent of families with children are workless, compared with 24 per cent of working age households without children.

?South Lanarkshire is the area with the highest inequality as the percentage of families with either four or more disadvantages (seven per cent) or none (58 per cent) are both higher than the national average.

?Households experiencing severe disadvantage are more likely to live in large urban areas (50 per cent) and social rented housing (77 per cent).

Report co-author Louise Bazalgette said: “The extent of severe disadvantage shows the scale of the ­challenge for some local authorities, who need to find effective ways to work with families facing a complex set of problems at a time of dwindling public resources.”